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California voters are closely divided over the crackdown on illegal immigration in Arizona, with sharp splits along lines of ethnicity and age, according to a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll.

Overall, 50% of registered voters surveyed said they support the law, which compels police to check the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally, while 43% oppose it. That level of support is lower than polls have indicated nationwide.

But attitudes among the state's voters are not uniform. Strong majorities of white voters and those over 50 support the Arizona law, while Latinos and those under 30 are heavily opposed.

Arizona's adoption of the law in April stirred passions and protests across the nation, with cities including Los Angeles voting to boycott the state. The matter has turned into a pressure point in electoral battles, including the Republican gubernatorial primary in California. But the poll shows that most voters, even those with ardent feelings about the measure, said they were unlikely to reject candidates based solely on their immigration stances.

Actually, this is a large survey sample of 1,506 registered voters, and the poll's got a sampling error of 2.6 percent. In other words, Californians are not "closely divided" on the Arizona law. Exactly half of the respondents support the law, amazing for California, which if it not for the tea parties would have long ago gone the way of San Franciscoistan. And remember, we'd have a way larger difference than 7 percentage-points if the mainstream press was accurately reporting the news.